A coalition of Web3 companies has unveiled a new Ethereum token standard, ERC‑7943, designed to streamline compliance and reduce fragmentation within the burgeoning real-world asset (RWA) sector. The announcement emphasizes ERC‑7943’s minimal, modular interface, engineered for compatibility across Ethereum layer-2 solutions and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains, while maintaining agnosticism toward specific implementations and vendor infrastructures.
Dario Lo Buglio, co-founder of Brickken and author of Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)‑7943, characterized the standard as a “universal layer” functioning atop any token type. This design aims to eliminate the necessity for wrappers and custom bridges when integrating tokenized assets into applications, thereby simplifying the development process for both developers and institutions.
The ERC‑7943 initiative garners support from a consortium of Web3 and fintech entities, including Bit2Me, Brickken, Compellio, Dekalabs, DigiShares, Hacken, Forte Protocol, FullyTokenized, RealEstate.Exchange, Stobox, and Zoth.
Lo Buglio stated that EIP‑7943 stems directly from developer frustrations and a surge of institutional interest, describing it as a response to a “perfect storm.”
Data from RWA.xyz, an RWA tracker, indicates a total value of tokenized RWAs on-chain reaching $28.44 billion, marking an approximate 6% increase over the preceding 30 days. Concurrently, the total value of stablecoins and the aggregate number of asset holders have risen by nearly 7% and 9%, respectively, underscoring the escalating adoption of RWAs by institutions.
According to Lo Buglio, the growth of RWAs shows that institutions are actively adopting RWAs at scale, with issuers competing for market share, which underscores the need for a token standard that caters to the requirements of both developers and financial institutions.
The standard has entered the review phase of the EIP process. Lo Buglio confirmed that the EIP remains under review, a stage during which primary feedback will be proposed and integrated.
Prior attempts to standardize RWA tokenization on Ethereum include ERC‑1400 and ERC‑3643. ERC‑1400 introduced a hybrid model combining features of fungible and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), with built-in compliance tools. ERC‑3643, on the other hand, focused on regulated assets like securities, integrating on-chain identity and permission layers to enforce Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) requirements.
Lo Buglio explained that ERC‑1400 emphasizes the separation of logic from storage, while ERC‑3643, while strong for securities, is tightly coupled to its own identity and permissioning stack. He stated that ERC‑7943 distinguishes itself by offering a minimal, implementation-agnostic interface.
